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  #21  
Old Posted Dec 5, 2017, 2:37 PM
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I thought the Indian diaspora in South Africa was fairly well known as it's predominantly clustered in Durban and they have played a very important part in the identity of that city over time. And influenced some delicious curry.

Interestingly for census purposes "Indian and Asian" are considered one category in that country even though that comprises mostly Indian origin in Durban, but also includes Chinese (a rapidly increasing population group), Cape Malay and other Muslim populations which we often may not consider as "Asian" in origin.
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  #22  
Old Posted Dec 6, 2017, 3:19 AM
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I would say that a lot of people in India and maybe much of South Asia know that there is a large Indian/South Asian population in Peel Region, especially Brampton and even in other parts of the GTA.

I had a scam telemarketer call me last year who had a heavy Indian accent who said he was calling from Brampton. It was obvious he was calling from India because I quizzed him on basic things about Brampton that he couldn't answer. The obvious question I asked him was "What is the name of the big airport for Toronto?" He just said "Toronto International Airport." I told him that if he were actually living in Brampton he would be quite close to the airport which is Lester B Pearson International Airport most people just call it Pearson.
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  #23  
Old Posted Dec 6, 2017, 3:42 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by saffronleaf View Post
Long-winded way of saying I think the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are more South Asian in some sense than the US, even though the US has a larger number of South Asians (and those South Asians tend to be more educated and higher earning than their counterparts in Canzuk).
South Asian Americans have more financial and educational influence or power (eg. more are CEOs, hold high position in tech, in Silicon Valley, and as professors in universities etc.), but are politically not as powerful within their country.

South Asian Canadians haven't got as much financial and educational influence, but are more politically powerful in their country (eg. there are individuals who have been mayor, MPs, cabinet ministers, premier, and currently a leader of a political party).
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  #24  
Old Posted Dec 6, 2017, 3:51 AM
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Originally Posted by Capsicum View Post
South Asian Americans have more financial and educational influence or power (eg. more are CEOs, hold high position in tech, in Silicon Valley, and as professors in universities etc.), but politically not as powerful within their country.

South Asian Canadians haven't got as much financial and educational influence, but are more politically powerful in their country (eg. there are individuals who have been mayor, MPs, cabinet ministers, premier, and currently a leader of a political party).
Yup, it's mainly due to the differences in immigration policy.

I think the backlog to apply for a green card as an Indian is something like 10-15 years, whereas Canada's points system doesn't impose caps on the basis of national origin. So the only way to come to the US is to come on a work visa (like H1B) and transition to a green card. This means that the Indians coming to the US have to be well educated and must be able to hold on to a job that typically requires a degree. Indian Americans are among the highest income earning ethnic groups on a per capita and median basis in the US. Comparatively, South Asians are more likely to be poor and to a limited extent more likely to be involved in things like crime in Canada and the UK.

Also, Canada accepted a considerable number of refugees during the Khalistan crisis in India and the Civil War in Sri Lanka, which help account for the large number of Punjabi Sikhs and Sri Lankan Tamils who have been in Canada now for a couple / few generations now.
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  #25  
Old Posted Dec 6, 2017, 4:00 AM
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Another thing -- anecdotally I hear a lot about how Asian Americans in many US cities still get annoyed at being asked about their Asian ancestry a lot (eg. being mistaken for new immigrants or being asked "where are you really from?" to ask what one's ancestry is, or the old cliches about "being torn between the hyphenated identity"). But my Asian Canadian friends seemed to not experience this as much. At least among the younger 20-30 something year old generation in cities like Toronto and Vancouver and their suburbs.

Conversely, a black American rarely gets assumed to be a recent immigrant. But in Canada, some black Canadians are frustrated when people try to guess or assume their ethnic identity (eg. asking "are you Jamaican"? or "are you Somali"? etc.).
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  #26  
Old Posted Dec 6, 2017, 4:11 AM
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Originally Posted by saffronleaf View Post
Yup, it's mainly due to the differences in immigration policy.

I think the backlog to apply for a green card as an Indian is something like 10-15 years, whereas Canada's points system doesn't impose caps on the basis of national origin. So the only way to come to the US is to come on a work visa (like H1B) and transition to a green card. This means that the Indians coming to the US have to be well educated and must be able to hold on to a job that typically requires a degree. Indian Americans are among the highest income earning ethnic groups on a per capita and median basis in the US. Comparatively, South Asians are more likely to be poor and to a limited extent more likely to be involved in things like crime in Canada and the UK.

Also, Canada accepted a considerable number of refugees during the Khalistan crisis in India and the Civil War in Sri Lanka, which help account for the large number of Punjabi Sikhs and Sri Lankan Tamils who have been in Canada now for a couple / few generations now.
Well, it's the US that's the outlier here.

In almost all the other South Asian diasporas, not just the richer western ones like the UK, Canada and Australia, you have comparatively way more people who were descendants of manual laborers, but even the Gulf countries and older diasporas like South Africa, Trinidad, Guyana, Fiji, Mauritius etc.

I think the history of manual labor among Asians more broadly is underestimated and underrepresented in the North American imagination, which assumes Asians only do "bookish" things rather than do physical labor or work with their hands.

But Asian immigrants (Chinese, Indian, Japanese etc.) were railway workers, lascars and sailors, farmers, lumber mill workers and miners in western North America, British Columbia and California, Hawaii etc. long before they were stereotyped as affluent doctors, engineers and tech workers.

Last edited by Capsicum; Dec 6, 2017 at 4:57 AM.
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  #27  
Old Posted Dec 6, 2017, 4:38 AM
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A class of kids like these wouldn't look out of place in a public school in Toronto or Vancouver today, but these are photos from a remote lumber mill town back in the day.

It's a ghost town now, but Paldi, BC, was a rare example of a town founded by a South Asian immigrant, Mayo Singh, over a century ago, named after his former hometown in the Punjab (how often is it that you hear about a non-European founder of a town in North American naming a place after their hometown in the Old World?).

The town was an early example of a rural but diverse, multi-racial community in Canada and included whites, Sikh Indians, Chinese, and Japanese.





Sources: http://www.desitoday.ca/paldi-town-s...-sikh-history/

http://jacquelinepearce.ca/books/reunion/

Last edited by Capsicum; Dec 6, 2017 at 4:53 AM.
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